I Need A Weekend Off From My Weekend

Kev Crossing Home Plate At Fenway




Wow, a very busy weekend that left me wishing for a rest instead of returning to work. Funny how that happens .....actually more often than not these days. I am of the opinion that a three day weekend would be much more congruent with my current schedule. If that proposal was on a ballot somewhere, I bet voter turn out would be close to 100%

It was an early start Saturday morning because I wanted to get in a long trail run before my normal duties of which I was cramming two days into one in preparation for being down to Mass to cheer on my son in the 9k to Home Plate Race.

Originally I planned an easy run on the full 25K course at Pineland with a friend that would be doing it for the first time next weekend. He had to work so I decided to do a time trial run at close to race pace to see where my fitness level was and to see how my legs responded to powering the hills at the faster pace.

The toughest part was the fields because some areas were freshly mowed and the cut grass got caught on my shoes as I ran, then there were spots that had not been mowed yet and consisted of knee high grass laden with morning dew....I am not sure which was worse. It sure felt good to get back on the grass less trail again.

I felt good the whole way and only skipped the last field which is about 1 mile. Honestly, I had enough field running for this day and I was feeling pretty tired. I am pretty sure I didn't miss any of the course so without counting the last field, I think I ran close to 14.5 miles. I called it 14 miles just to be sure as the Nano measured 15.19 and the Garmen measured 12.27. Neither is very accurate in the trails so I average the two and feel comfortable the result is fairly close.

Overall, A very rewarding run and I was happy with the end result. I hugged the 10:30 pace which was a bit faster than I thought as I was monitoring heart rate rther than pace at the time. I feel I am in fairly good running shape this year and plan on adding some speed workouts after this weekend.

Sunday
Went to Boston to cheer on my son in the 9k To Home Plate race to benefit our wounded veterans. It was great event as they raised over 2 million dollars to help our solders upon their return from over seas.

It was pretty cool, after they crossed the finish line (on the warning track inside the stadium) they stepped on home plate and had their picture taken shaking hands with one of our Generals.

We got a seat right behind home plate about 5 rows back ....how I wish I could get those seats during a redsox game! They did have a whole slug of logistical problems with the way they set up the race (especially the finish) and hopefully if they do it again next year they will change a few things.

Even though we had the fantastic seats, I didn't get very good pictures because a bunch of people (some helping but others were allowed on the field for unknown reasons to me)stood between us and the runners. This was poor planning because they advertised fairly heavy that the runners chosen 5 could get great photo opportunities.

I'm not complaining of course because the whole thing was for our veterans not the spectators or the runners. I guess I am just a bit spoiled from our local race directors and how organized they are.

In the end, they raised 2.4 million dollars and about 2000 runners made it across home plate. My son ran a great race coming in 93 out 2000 at a pace of 7:06, not bad considering he has only been training for a month or so.

It was quite exciting to watch all these people run through Fenway and do something special while raising money for an important cause. I felt a bit left out wishing I was one of those runners. Perhaps if they do it again next year, I will get a chance to run onto the field at Fenway and put my foot on home plate.

On a side note, I am still toying with the thought of running a 50 miler. Saturday Emma offered me a great training plan and perhaps that is just the incentive I need to schedule for this fall.....we will see.

14 miles @2:26:33 (10:39PACE)

splits and heart rate:

9:44...137-150
10:11...143-152
12:09...142-151
11:35...147-156
10:59...148-158
10:38...150-155
10:17...141-151
10:29...141-158
10:11...142-148
10:19...143-157
9:48...149-158
9:56...154-161
10:14...155-159
9:40...155-158